Industry: Launch Delays Won't Hamper High-Def DVD

Delays be damned. High-def industry reps who gathered at this week's Digital Hollywood conference say that a bumpy start for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will have little impact on the long-term consumer acceptance of the next-gen formats, predicting a steady climb in sales for the second half of the year, reports Video Business.

"The first few months are almost irrelevant,” said Andy Parsons, a senior VP for Pioneer Electronics and Blu-Ray Disc Association spokesman.

Warner senior vp Steve Nickerson said that the studio believes that because Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are being introduced across a variety of set-top boxes, computers and game systems in its first year, it will be adopted much faster than standard DVD, which was launched solely via set-top players.

Nickerson also said Warner expects strong total high-def product sales by year end, putting overall high-def adoption across all players, drives and game consoles for both formats at between 4.5 million and 7.5 million units -- a huge increase over the 300,000 players that were sold in standard DVD's first nine months.

When asked whether consumer perceptions of high-def DVD could be tainted by all the negative press over initial delays, Parsons urged the media not to declare high-def DVD dead before things get off the ground. "It takes time for the market to know what it is," he said.